Daily Archives: July 29, 2022

The international community must emphatically condemn the egregious executions last weekend of four Burmese democracy advocates by the countrys ruling junta.

Kyaw Min Yu (also known as Ko Jimmy), Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw were hanged because of their unwavering support for freedom. It had been 34 years since rulers of Burma, now known as Myanmar,had summarily executed any of their own citizens and it was under a military regime then, too.

Amid challenges to democracy and human rights around the world, this horrific attack on freedom fighters in Burma must not go unanswered. The international community cannot remain silent as the military junta in control of the country threatens even more outrages. The Burmese people need to know that the democratic world stands behind them.

It has been 18 months since Burmas decade of transition to democracy was thwarted by a military coup dtat, and its becoming more evident with each passing day that the situation in the country is becoming ever more dire. Burma must not fall off the international communitys priority list. The Burmese people need our support now. And that means that the Biden administration, Congress, the media and civil society all have roles to play.

Sadly, the executions are just the latest atrocities committed by this oppressive regime to silence the Burmese people. Since the coup, almost 15,000 individuals across Burma have been arrested. About three-quarters of them are still detained, and over 2,000 have been killed, including women and children.

The militarys campaign of repression is an outright rejection of human dignity and the rule of law, conditions which modern nations recognize are critical for human beings to flourish, Bush Institute Executive Director Holly Kuzmich said in astatementcondemning the militarys actions. Thats why, despite threats to their well-being, the Burmese people continue their pursuit of democracy.

At the Bush Institute, weve engaged 79 young leaders across Burma since 2014 through our Liberty and Leadership Program (LLP) part of our work to support democracy activists around the globe. We know firsthand that the young people of Burma want to be free, and we believe that when democracies thrive, we all thrive. Since the coup, our LLP young leaders have been at the forefront of peaceful opposition, organizing protests and coordinating efforts to share what is truly happening on the ground.

Burma was well along the path to democracy before the February 2021 coup. Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy was in power after five decades of military rule. Young people were excited and tantalized by their first taste of freedom. But then the brutal, military-led campaign against the Rohingya population in the country started to chip away at this progress, and it all came to a screeching halt when the military seized power once again.

Freedom is something thats easy for us to take for granted in the United States. But its not an option for so many in our world. For the people of Burma, free speech is effectively silenced, media is censored and repression of minority ethnic groups continues without any possibility of recourse. The Burma they knew just a couple of years ago is no more.

The family members of the four executed pro-democracy activists are still waiting for information regarding their loved ones. This is the epitome of cruelty, and its unacceptable.

The situation in Burma is worsening. If we do nothing, I fear what these authoritarian leaders will do next. How far will they go? How far will democratic nations allow them to go?

The Biden administration and Congress must take effective, strong and coordinated action to hit members of the junta where it hurts most their wealth. The media should use their platforms to keep Burma at the forefront of our attention, and civil society organizations should continue supporting those who need it the most during this time.

Peaceful opposition to the junta has shown the world that the Burmese people long for democracy, and theyll do everything they can to restore their voice in government. But the military is not backing down either, and their tactics are becoming increasingly sinister.

The United States and other democracies have an opportunity to stand with the people of Burma in their quest for freedom. By doing this, we can signal to authoritarian leaders across the world that we will not tolerate their actions. We can demonstrate that the desire for freedom is universal, and we will always walk alongside those who pursue it.

Michael Bailey is senior program manager of Leadership Programs at the George W. Bush Institute.

Original post:

The world must condemn Burmas execution of freedom fighters - The Hill

Freedom is a tough word these days. It seems that it means so many things to so many different people. So many of the arguments that we seem to have in culture these days are about freedom and what it means to various people and how those freedoms bump up against each other.

The issue is that there are really two kinds of freedom. There is freedom from and freedom to. In our culture these days freedom from is the more dominant of the two. It shows a lack of restraint, a word not all that popular these days.

Someone who is pursuing this kind of freedom might sound like this: Im free from restraint and rules. I dont have to mediate my passions, impulses, or appetites because I am free from all external control, whether it be social, legal or moral.

In the process of this pursuit all too often people become enslaved to something else. I have seen this most poignantly in my own life with friends and acquaintances that suffer from addiction. All too often they use the language of freedom to justify their drug use or their drinking when in reality they are just slaves to the bottle or the needle or promiscuous sex or whatever passion, impulse or appetite to which they have given control of their lives.

Opposite of this, and what I would offer is the biblical ideal of freedom, is the freedom to pursue something noble and good. In biblical terms, we would think about this as freedom to pursue God. When the Apostle Paul states, in Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and dont submit again to a yoke of slavery, this is the kind of freedom that he is talking about. This is not a kind of freedom for the members of the church to go and do whatever they want. This is freedom from sin that allows them the freedom to pursue God and his design for their lives.

At the beginning of this little series several weeks ago we talked about the perfect design that God has for us and for the world and how our sin has led to brokenness and a falling away from Gods good and perfect design. We then looked at the gospel and how the gospel is the good news that God has taken care of this brokenness in the miraculous birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, and death-killing resurrection of the Son Jesus.

But the full context of this good news, of the gospel, is freedom. The work of Christ has set us free from our slavery to sin and death and gives us the freedom to recover and pursue Gods design for us. There are several things that one might call this journey to recover and pursue Gods design. We might call it the pursuit of holiness or sanctification. Ultimately what it is the desire of the disciple to become like the master.

The journey of the Christian does not end with the profession of faith and the decision to follow Jesus. Rather, that is but the beginning of the Christian journey. It is a journey, however, that we cannot start until God, in His grace, sets us free. It is also the journey of a lifetime.

This freedom to recover and pursue Gods design is not something that we will get correct from the beginning, because even though we will have been set free from the power of sin and death, we still live in a broken and fallen world. So, every day, we are on a journey to follow God more closely, to align ourselves more directly with His will, and to more completely pursue his design for ourselves, our families, our churches and our communities.

Points to consider:

1) How have you seen an unbiblical idea of freedom cause havoc in your own life or in the lives around you?

2) What does it mean to you that we have been set free, in Christ, to recover and pursue Gods good and perfect design for us?

3) What are some ways, this week, that you can work to follow God more closely?

S. Carter McNeese lives in Fairmont, NC with his wife, son, and various pets. He is pastor at Fairmont First Baptist Church. You can reach him at [emailprotected]

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Having freedom to recover and pursue - The Robesonian

In the music video for Maggie Rogers single Thats Where I Am, she dances across a New York bridge during golden hour with reckless abandon. She twirls and punches the air in a turquoise, feather lined jacket, charging ahead at full speed as ecstasy beams across her face, like shes finally found herself at the end of her own coming-of-age film. Its the kind of joy thats boundless, unstoppable almost feral. It tells you everything you need to know about her new album Surrender that Rogers is ready to live larger, sing louder and feel deeper than ever.

Two months before the albums release, NME meets Rogers in the dimly-lit restaurant of a central London hotel just before lunchtime, where the US singer-songwriter reflects on the spectrum of emotions she unearthed during the writing process. Joy and anger are two motions that really ask you to full-body give in, she says, coffee and half-eaten porridge in front of her. When youre feeling them, they completely take over. So much of this record is about giving into feeling.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

It was a process of surrender that, unsurprisingly, proves taxing to open up about. Post-pandemic, this takes so much more energy, she says after taking a second to reset, just two questions in. Im trying to be really present with you, and Im just struggling a little bit. So stay with me. Shes already moved NMEs dictaphone closer to her so she can speak a little quieter, still fatigued from jetlag, having flown into London just a few days before.

Its been over three years since the release of her debut album Heard It In a Past Life a soul-baring journey through heartache, growth and self-discovery which NME described as the work of an idiosyncratic talent who writes empowering, honest songs about falling hopelessly in love, getting your heart broken, discovering your self-worth and picking yourself up off the floor. It was an album that propelled Rogers even further into the spotlight, setting her up for a huge world tour and garnering praise from the likes of John Mayer and the Obamas the latter pair even sending her a letter in which they described themselves as huge fans.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

The album also earned Rogers a Best New Artist Grammy nomination in 2020 (she would lose out to Billie Eilish) and boldly reintroduced a singer who was always destined to outgrow her fairytale story of internet discovery. In 2016, a clip of Pharrell Williams being visibly moved by Rogers song Alaska during a songwriting masterclass at New York University (NYU), her alma mater, went viral. Within the first few moments of the song being played, Williams bobs his head to the buoyant melodies and breezy cadence of Rogers voice, glancing at her with awe and excitement. I have zero, zero, zero notes for that, he says. Ive never heard anyone like you before, and Ive never heard anything that sounds like that. It was a life-changing moment, helping to secure Rogers a record deal and launching her music career, albeit one that totally ignored all the work Ive been doing in my entire life, as she told NME in 2019.

I wanted to make a portrait of my life right now and tell the truth

But where Rogers debut was a portrait of transition and acceptance, her second record, co-produced by Kid Harpoon [Harry Styles, Florence + The Machine] is about trying to make sense of the emotional intensity of the past two years. Heard It In a Past Life was really my chance to tell my side of the story of this big moment where my career was sort of launched, and theres a lot of heartbreak and emotion and relationship within that, too, she explains. Surrender, by contrast, is way more about my intimate, internal life, because thats all that was going on.

A slew of emotions radiates throughout the albums 12 purging tracks channelled through distorted production and dense guitar riffs, balanced against hymnal piano compositions and raw, acoustic melodies which paint a textured portrait of Rogers life at the time of writing, from romances, to friendships, to the state of the world around her. Its the unapologetically honest work of an artist who spent the downtime of the last two years thinking deeply about what she wanted out of life, asking how she could live a sensual, full-bodied existence. When I hear the record now, when I hear that joy, I also hear the tension of the anger, and I think it makes the joy feel earned.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

In early 2020, Rogers relocated to the coast of Maine, New England to move back in with her parents. It allowed her to make music the way she did as a teenager, without pressure or expectation. I got to just slow down, be a person again and have desires outside of work, she says. She fell into a natural rhythm of making music that she hadnt experienced since she was 17. In taking that pressure off, I was like, Just dont worry about anybody hearing this. You dont need to think about that yet. Just write whats on your mind. Try and make a portrait of your life right now and tell the truth. And I think in that, I then became more unfiltered.

Rogers was raised in Easton, Maryland, where she grew up learning to play the harp, piano and banjo. As a teen, she wrote and recorded music in her bedroom, some of which are immortalised in two hauntingly raw EPs The Echo (2012) and Blood Ballet (2014), which can still be found on the singers Bandcamp profile. The former helped her secure a spot at NYU, where she turned her musical upbringing to a more structured curriculum.

Maggie Rogers on the cover of NME

During her time at university, she dabbled in music journalism, and is credited as a transcriber in Lizzy Goodmans romp through the 00s indie-rock scene, Meet Me In The Bathroom. Last year, Rogers revealed that she had enrolled at Harvard Divinity School to do a masters degree in Religion and Public Life a new course designed for experienced professionals who want to understand the complex ways religion influences public life.

Her decision to return to education coincided with a time in which she was living with intention, asking what it means to live a beautiful life and seeking a means to break out of the eerie numbness brought on by the uncertainty of the pandemic. Surrender, as a result, charts Rogers natural evolution to tell the truth of the person she is right now. Its an album that, while originating in more remote settings, is inspired by the city that was formative in her artistic growth. I think that theres often this desire to create this binary of city-country, but its not really that simple, she says. Its the same reason why, in the past, she has been labelled a nature girl, telling NME in her last cover interview that she felt nymph-fetishized.

I cold emailed David Byrne to appear in my video he feels a part of this record

It was a stereotype people were drawn to because of songs like Alaska (I was walking through icy streams / That took my breath away), and tracks that would sample organic sounds like birds or falling trees, along with the appeal of her natural-looking style long hair and freckles, which she didnt cover up in photoshoots. But such misconceptions only sought to push the singer into a box. I think that people like to make things smaller so they can understand them, she says. I never really quite understood it.

Rogers perception of the world around her, paired with the fluent ability to narrate her own personal growth so poetically, has allowed fans to connect deeply to Rogers music, finding a part of themselves in her own lyrics. As a storyteller, I feel like my work is to feel as much as possible and report back. And being able to explain my life or my own existence, thats my artform, she says. Scan the YouTube comments of her songs and it wont be long before you find someone recalling the air being knocked out of them on their first listen, or that they discovered the singer at a time in their life when they needed it most. I heard this song for the first time when I had depression, and it gave me a sense of hope, one comment reads on the video for Light On, in which she sings that everyone told her she should be so happy now when her life was the picture of success.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

In pushing through her own sense of apathy, Rogers was able to create her most visceral, life-affirming music yet propelled by roaring instrumental arrangements and vast, powerful vocals, as if her lungs have grown in capacity. The albums biggest anthem Want Want is about sensuality and sexual freedom, opening with a drum fill and waves of dense, grungy synths that reminds the singer of Black Sabbaths Iron Man a huge sonic departure from the crisp, polished finishes on Heard It In a Past Life. At one point, Rogers descends into a howl so cathartic that most people would have probably made a similar noise when they first got to experience dance floors and live gigs again.

Its the fiercely joyful voice of an artist who discovered that the beautiful existence she was seeking could be found in the pleasure of lifes most simple moments. Its about a glass of wine or the lighting in here, or the way a silk feels on your skin, she says. In Want Want, its sticky floors and fluorescent lit bathrooms as she wrote in a press release, which was accompanied by a music video in which Rogers dances around one of her favourite New York karaoke bars in a fluorescent wig.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

Lead single Thats Where I Am channels a similar carefree energy a song that sounds like Rogers is bellowing out to the whole of New York from the top of a skyscraper. Serving as her love letter to the city that never sleeps and the place that became the backdrop to all her claustrophobic fantasies during lockdown, its an ode to tantalising pleasure in the most unlikely of moments in a city that winks back. I longed for someone to sweat on me. Spill their beer on my shoes. Be too tall for me to see at a concert, she said in a press statement.

The music video also features cameos from classic New York characters The Walkmens Hamilton Leithauser, photographer Quil Lemons and Talking Heads David Byrne. I cold emailed him, she says of Byrne. Wed never met. Im a massive fan. And Strange Overtones was a song in the pandemic that I just deeply connected to and played over and over and over again. So he feels a part of this record in my brain because I was so connected to that song. Byrne was immediately up for the invitation. [He] was just like, Yeah, Im getting my haircut downtown tomorrow. Where? What time?. The timing and the stars, it seems aligned for Rogers. He was like, Yeah great. Ill ride my bike over. I think I can hang for like 20 minutes.

I used to feel the need to prove myself but I dont feel that anymore

Its the same shoot-your-shot strategy Rogers used when she cold DMd Florence Welch in 2019, inviting the singer to join her on stage at her Brixton show. Now the two are friends, or rather, as Rogers recently declared, shes her magical genius sorceress sister. Last summer, recording time overlapped for their respective albums at Electric Lady Studio in New York, so they traded their talents. Rogers vocals feature on Girls Against God and Dream Girl Evil from Welchs new album Dance Fever, who offered vocals and tambourine on Rogers track Shatter in return.

Its a super small studio, and we know each other. So wed have a coffee, go in, Id see her after work, it was just really natural, Rogers says. I played her Shatter, and she loved it. And then I was like, Dude, if you hear anything for it, or if you want to be a part of it, like, I love you. Shortly after Welch left the studio, she dreamed up an idea and asked if she could return to record it immediately. Shes one of a kind, Rogers adds.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

Rogers is also set to bring an entirely different live energy to this album, her upcoming shows being appropriately named The Feral Joy tour. Last year, she also described the work-in-progress as a record that shell tour for a lifetime. Watching the singers Coachella set back, its no coincidence that she looks so at home on stage, which sees her tap into that same unbridled joy that courses through her new music videos, performing with the kind of effortless, present moment flow that every artist aspires for. There was also more at stake than just the pressure of holding a crowd, with the performance actually serving as the public presentation requirement of her course. A lot of my masters degree was thinking about how we come together, how do we create meaning? What do I think the role of the artist is? And then how do I define that for as long as I choose to do this?

It allowed Rogers to look closely at the fine details of how she crafts a performance, from the set list and rehearsals, to stage layout and clothing. You know that meme of the girl with all the calculations above her head? I totally thought that was gonna be me on stage, she says. And then I just had a blast, she adds with an infectious smile. I couldnt think about any of it, in the best way. Because I think that really, theres so much about music that is unsaid, that is the best part.

Credit: Zoe McConnell for NME

In studying the ethics of power in pop culture, Rogers is aware that fans often turn to artists to provide spiritual guidance, seeking wisdom in the universal, transcendent language of music that we often assume every musician is qualified to offer counsel in. Ive done that too, she says. I look to music or musicians to have some sort of answer. Has her perception of this expectation, and the relationship between artists and their fans, changed after her studies? Part of what led me to go to grad school was the friction between feeling this expectation of having an answer, she says. I really am good in the studio, and Im really good on stage, and I know how to make music. But this other thing was not something I really thought about.

On Surrenders closing song, Different Kind of World, Rogers reflects on the state of the world, but notes that when were all riding together, Im a different kind of girl. I feel like thinking about the state of the world has always been a part of my record process. Its because I am a part of the world, she says. I dont know how you go through the pandemic, or the election, or the amount of social change the last couple years, and not have it be a part of what youre thinking in some way.

Reasserting joy feels like reasserting my fundamental right to live a full existence

The world is feeling particularly dark when we meet in early June. A month before our conversation, a leaked document reveals that the US Supreme Court has voted to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade abortion rights decision, essentially removing the constitutional right to an abortion on a statewide level. Two weeks after we meet, its made official. abortion is healthcare. bodily autonomy is a human right, Rogers tweeted on the day the news broke, having been vocal about reproductive rights for as long as she has been in the spotlight. Im thinking a lot about joy as a form of rebellion. Because I also feel that sense of helplessness. We cant give into that, she says when I ask how she feels when everything seems worse than ever. Reasserting joy feels like reasserting my fundamental right to live a full existence.

When NME last spoke to Rogers in 2019, she was the picture of an artist who was thriving. She had recently performed on Saturday Night Live, toured with Mumford & Sons and finally had a debut album to share with the world. But while the singer was learning to embrace her story, Rogers was still some way from the artist she wanted to be. Im just excited for the day when my music is enough, she told NME three years ago. Does she feel like she has finally arrived?

Man, that was a tough era, she says, looking taken aback by hearing the words of an artist who was still trying to grow into her fame. I want to hug that girl. I actually feel like this is that day. I think I felt the real need to prove myself then that I dont feel anymore. In that way, the music is enough, she adds.

That video going viral was like, Now I have a chance to do this thing Ive always wanted to, and it doesnt look or feel like what I thought it would. And now, I have a life as a musician that I get to define in the ways that I choose. And as were seeing in the United States, choice is the greatest sense of freedom.

Maggie Rogers Surrender is out now via Capitol Records

Originally posted here:

Maggie Rogers: Choice is the greatest sense of freedom - NME

The Supreme Courts decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District last month reignited the conversation about religions place in public schools.

While many fear that the ruling undermines traditional separation of church and state in public education, Northeastern experts agree that K-12 schools need to do better in recognizing and honoring the identities of students who belong to religious minorities.

As students in the southern parts of the United States are starting to return to classrooms for a new school year, some Jewish parents and educators are expressing growing concerns that their children will experience increased pressures from teachers to engage in Christian prayer and celebrate Christian holidays after the Supreme Court decision, says Karen Reiss Medwed, a teaching professor at the Notheasterns Graduate School of Education and a rabbi.

On June 27, six of nine Supreme Court justices agreed that Joseph Kennedy, a former high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, was protected by the First Amendment when he repeatedly prayed in public on the 50-yard line after his teams games, and that the school district was wrong to discipline him after he refused to end the practice.

While there have always been tensions between the separation of church and state and some public school practices in the U.S., often regarded as the Christmas Dilemma, this year feels particularly vulnerable for many families as the Supreme Court decision is being celebrated in some parts of the country as permission to celebrate and engage in public Christian prayer and practices, Medwed says.

Jewish parents fear their children will experience more antisemitism and other forms of anti-Christian microaggressions, Medwed says, which negatively impact students, who need to feel safe and supported in order to thrive in school.

Seven out of 10 Americans identify as Christian. When Christianity is slowly being practiced by teachers or in the school districts in places that it might have not been practiced in the past, it makes it harder to see the separation of church and state, Medwed says.

Noor Ali, an assistant teaching professor in Northeasterns Graduate School of Education and the principal of a private, not-for-profit Muslim school, Al-Hamra Academy, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, says she saw the Supreme Courts decision as a selective permission for Christian teachers and students to practice their faith in schools as well. Ali believes that the decision did not take into account the pressure that is being put on people of other faiths or those who dont practice religion and their feelings.

What it has done is it has furthered the gap between those people who have privilege and those who dont, Ali says. It would not have been okay if it was a player kneeling down protesting against Black oppression. It would not have been okay if it was a Muslim player, who went into a prayer after he scored a goal.

The religious symbolism that is OK is one that is normalized by mainstream, Ali says, while Muslim American students across the country have to make very mindful decisions about religious requirements like covering their heads.

Both Ali and Medwed agree that there is a place for faith in schools that needs to better respect the religious practices of other denominations besides Christianity.

Our students are meant to be able to express their religious beliefs and be supported in their individual practices so that everyone could benefit from an egalitarian free education, Medwed says.

We tried to separate religious anything and keep it sterile in an education system, Ali says. It is almost performative of religious blindness, just like colorblindness was.

Such approach discounts the lived experience of various students in many ways and doesnt account for their religious needs, Ali says, from food choices available at cafeterias to different demographic groups to which holidays are acknowledged and celebrated at a school.

What do you do with religion that is an integral part of you? You have to essentially work very hard in keeping it out, Ali says. Always seeing yourself as the exception to the rule is hard work when you are five, six or seven years old.

Ali believes that instead of being religion-blind, schools should strive to recognize and understand different religions, honor and celebrate them.

All children should experience the freedom to practice their religion and feel empowered to do so, Medwed says. Her concern around the Supreme Courts decision is about students second-guessing their own religious identity. Medwed hopes that they can find the resilience to speak up when a teacher at their school asks them to do something that makes them feel religiously put upon, whether it is because it goes against their religion or because it makes them feel invisible in their religious identity, Medwed says.

Jewish students often have issues with wearing kippah/yamaka in secular schools, Medwed says, or with refusing to participate in a Christmas choir, and adults in positions of power might make children feel isolated socially or academically for expressing their personal beliefs.

Which, supposedly, constitutionally each of those students has the right to, and not accepting an invitation to participate in religious activity that does not align with your religious beliefs, Medwed says.

Some communities prefer to keep their children in community centered affinity schools versus public schools, Ali says.

There are marginalized communities that are trying to create safe spaces for their children, where their children can learn about their identity and be also themselves without having to explain themselves all the time that they would have to do in schools that are predominantly white, Ali says.

In my situation, our population is not just minoritized and historically underrepresented. Our population is demonized, Ali says. Our children carry the burden of 9/11, even though they are born a decade plus after it, so to be in a public school setting can sometimes be very difficult.

Ali, who has done research on American schooling and Muslim American students experience in public and non-public schools, says she sees the same patterns emerge over and over again with students pretending that they are not hungry for 30 days over the month of Ramadan or trying to figure out which teacher looks friendly enough to ask about their prayer.

She believes that the solution to making every student feel welcomed and seen is through conversation. Public schools need to recognize that there are other students in the classrooms who need accommodations for their religious needs.

In the educational context, we are all working in classrooms to do the best by our students. What additional work do we need to do so that we can recognize, support and cultivate freedom of religion not just for the religious majority, but also for the religious minorities amongst us? Ali says.

Educational researchers like them, Medwed says, can offer expertise and provide training and insights for the K-12 leadership seeking to put in place safeguards that will communicate to the students that their freedoms are at the center of the student experience in schools.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

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What Should Freedom of Religion Look Like in Public Schools? - Northeastern University

ImagineIF Libraries will receive the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award from the Montana Library Association on Aug. 5. This award will be given at the Tri-Conference Awards in Missoula.

The award recognizes current and former ImagineIF librarians Sean Anderson, Kat Wilson, Starr White and former interim director Martha Furman. These librarians led the response to concurrent challenges against two books in the library's collections, "Lawn Boy"by Jonathan Evison and "Gender Queer"by Maia Kobabe.

The Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award is conferred upon an individual or group who has made significant contributions during the past year to the enhancement of First Amendment rights or upon an individual whose body of work over time has made significant contributions to the enhancement of intellectual freedom.

The recipient should have demonstrated a clear understanding of the principles, nature, responsibilities and implications of the First Amendment.

The recipient should have applied that understanding of the principles in one or more of the following ways:

In defense of the principles in the face of a serious challenge to it which defense is not necessarily limited to libraries.

In support of the principles through an active role in: Formulating programs that develop peoples ability to deal with a full range of opinion/controversy and with the issues associated with such controversy. Developing, or materially assisting in the development of, a legal base for the continued enjoyment of freedom of mind, its strengthening, and its defense. Expanding the philosophical foundations of the principle or contributing to better understanding of it.

For more information on the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award, visit mtlib.org/page-18252 or contact Tracy Cook at 406-444-9816 or tcook2@mt.gov.

The 2022 NW Montana Fair and Rodeo is on!The fair runs August 17th through the 21st at the Flathead County Fairgrounds.

Nominate someone you think has earned a $100 Bridger Bubbles Car Wash gift certificate!

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ImagineIF Libraries to be awarded with the Pat Williams Intellectual Freedom Award - Montana Right Now

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) Freedom House, a U.S. government-sponsored non-profit organization advocating for democracy, political freedom, and human rights, announced on Friday that it plans to open an office in Taipei.

In a Twitter message, Freedom House said the upcoming Taipei office is expected to become a hub for the organization in the Indo-Pacific region.

"Freedom House looks forward to expanding our presence in Taiwan, which remains one of Asia's most robust democracies," the organization tweeted.

"The (Taipei) office will enable us to expand and deepen our collaboration with individuals and groups supporting human rights and democracy across the Indo-Pacific region," the organization added.

Freedom House was established in 1941 during World War II with a goal of fighting against Nazism and Communism in Europe.

On its website, Freedom House, the first American organization to champion the advancement of freedom globally, said it has advocated for "U.S. leadership and collaboration with like-minded governments to vigorously oppose dictators and oppression, and strengthen democracy around the world."

According to Freedom House's 2021 financial report, the U.S. government was the most important financial sponsor to the organization with about 92 percent of its money funded by grants from the U.S. government.

In 2019, China slapped sanctions on several U.S. pro-democracy and human rights groups, including Freedom House, for their support of protests in Hong Kong sparked by a controversial bill that would have allowed extradition of criminals from Hong Kong to mainland China.

To facilitate democracy, freedom and human rights and assess the degree of democratic freedoms in countries and significant disputed territories around the world, Freedom House has published the annual Freedom in the World report.

In the 2022 edition published in February, Taiwan scored 94 points, unchanged from 2021, and retained a status as a "free" country by grasping the 17th place in the world.

According to the 2022 report, Taiwan scored 38 points out of a maximum 40 for political rights, and 56 out of a maximum of 60 for civil liberties. In Asia, Taiwan only trailed Japan, which scored 96 points and took the 11th place worldwide.

China was rated a "not free" county, again, in the 2022 report and placed in 185th spot with a score of 9 points, the same as for 2021 after scoring minus 2 points in political rights, and 11 in civil liberties.

According to Freedom House, the organization has 12 field offices around the world, scattered in East Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

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Thomas Jefferson is coming under increasing attack, even at Monticello, his former estate, now a museum near Charlottesville, Virginia. The main focus seems to be on slavery, not on Jeffersons many unique accomplishments.

According to the New York Post, Books by critical race theory proponents Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates enjoy pride of place in the visitor centers gift shop, while the smaller Farm Shop store displays five titles on Jeffersons slavesand a single biography of the man himself.

In New York City, a statue of Jefferson was removed from City Hall after being displayed for 187 years.

>>> Heritage just issued a new report on how the left is rewriting the history of our first presidents at their former homes and museums, including Jeffersons Monticello. Read it here.

In an important article in the Smithsonian Magazine, The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson, historian Henry Wiencek is highly critical of Jeffersons role as a slaveholder. But he recognizes Jeffersons historic role in advancing freedom even, eventually, for those held in slavery.

He writes:

With five simple words in the Declaration of Independenceall men are created equalThomas Jefferson undid Aristotles ancient formula, which had governed human affairs until 1776: From the hour of their birth, some men are marked out for subjection, others for rule. In his original draft of the declaration, in soaring, damning, fiery prose, Jefferson denounced the slave traders as an execrable commerce this assemblage of horrors, a cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberties. As historian John Chester Miller put it, The inclusion of Jeffersons strictures on slavery and the slave trade would have committed the U.S. to the abolition of slavery.

Indeed, that was how it was interpreted by some of those who read it at the time. Massachusetts freed its slaves on the strength of the Declaration of Independence, weaving Jeffersons language into the state constitution of 1780.

Wiencek notes:

The meaning of all men sounded equally clear to the authors of the constitutions of six Southern states that they amended Jeffersons wording. All freemen they wrote in their founding documents, are equal. The authors of those state constitutions knew what Jefferson meant, and could not accept it. The Continental Congress ultimately struck the passage because South Carolina and Georgia, crying out for more slaves, would not abide shutting down the market.

Historian David Briton Davis declares, One cannot question the genuineness of Jeffersons liberal dreams. He was one of the first statesmen in any part of the world to advocate concrete measures for restricting and eradicating Negro slavery. Later, laments Davis, The most remarkable thing about Jeffersons stand on slavery is his immense silence.

It is interesting to recall Jeffersons harsh analysis of slavery, which had an important impact on the American society, despite his inability in his personal life to live up to the values he promoted, as is often the case with imperfect and fallible human beings.

It is also interesting to consider Jeffersons role with regard to slavery. In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of the principal charges made by Jefferson against King George III and his predecessors was that they would not allow the American colonies to outlaw the importation of slaves.

When Jefferson was first elected to the Virginia Legislature at the age of 25, his first political act was to begin the elimination of slavery, though he was unsuccessful. In his draft of a constitution for Virginia, he provided that all slaves would be emancipated in that state by 1800 and that any child born in Virginia after 1801 would be born free. This, however, was not adopted.

In his draft instructions to the Virginia delegation to the Continental Congress of 1774, published as A Summary View of the Rights of British America, Jefferson charged the British crown with having prevented the colonies from abolishing slavery in the interests of avarice and greed:

The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire of these colonies, where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our repeated efforts to effect this by prohibition, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majestys negative.

In his autobiography, Jefferson declared, Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.

In 1784, when an effort was unsuccessfully made to exclude slavery from the Northwest Territory, Jefferson was one of its leading supporters. Finally, with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, slavery was indeed excluded from these territoriesa further step along the path to its final elimination and a clear indication of the view of slavery which predominated among the Framers of the Constitution.

In Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson wrote:

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it, for man is an imitative animal With the morals of the people their industry also is destroyed. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?

In the end, while many criticized the Framers of the Constitution for not eliminating the slave trade immediately, others understood that they had set in motion an opposition to slavery that would bear fruit in the future.

When the Constitutional Convention met, slavery was legal throughout the world. Not a single country at that time had outlawed slavery. Many of the Framers wanted to eliminate slavery from the beginning.

Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were ardent abolitionists. John Jay, who would become the first chief justice of the United States, was president of the New York Anti-Slavery Society. Founding Fathers Rufus King and Gouverneur Morris were in the forefront of the opposition to slavery and the slave trade.

In the end, to keep South Carolina and Georgia in the Union, compromises were made. Still, Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut declared, Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our country.

Jefferson is a complex figure whose contribution to Americas creation and to American freedom is notable. He understood the evils of slavery, yet, being a man of his time and place, he did not separate himself from it.

To ignore his extraordinary achievements and focus only upon his shortcomings, as his critics now do, is to be guilty of what the Quaker theologian Elton Trueblood called the sin of contemporaneityfinding men and women of the past guilty of not holding the values of our contemporary society.

Sadly, from the beginning of recorded history until the 19th century, slavery existed in every historical period and with every racein Ancient Greece and Rome and in Biblical times. The teachings of the Hebrew Bible and the Apostle Paul and the Patristic Fathers all supported the idea of slavery.

The current assault on Jefferson tells us more about the lack of historical perspective of his detractors than it does about Jefferson himself, a flawed but extraordinary creator of the very idea of America.

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

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Increasing Assaults on Thomas Jefferson Ignore His Contributions - Daily Signal